William Keim

Civil War Sergeant William Keim

Try to imagine that you are a young Union infantry soldier and that you are marching toward your hometown of Gettysburg to fight what is to become the greatest battle of the Civil War. Owen Young is doing just that. He has already tasted Union failures at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and now he must help to defend his own home against the forces of the seemingly indomitable Robert E. Lee. Sergeant Owen Young is among the first infantry soldiers to face Lee's army and to later repulse the famous Picket's Charge on the third day of the battle. His fighting is far from over as he participates in nearly all the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac until Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomatox. Owen's best friend Jim Wright has a sister with whom Owen falls in love. Virginia Wright is very unlike the clinging vine types who are so often portrayed. Like Owen's Abolitionist mother, she is strong as well as beautiful. But there is mystery and romance in the story that are introduced in the Prologue and not solved until the very end of the novel. Civil War Sergeant is a fast-moving epic story of the GIs, the grunts, who did the fighting in the American Civil War.